Shattered
by Skylark Starflower
Summary: Something inside of James has snapped, and the results are deadly.


Author's note/Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, it belongs to Nintendo/Game Freak/whoever else owns it who isn't me.

So, yeah. This twisted little tale was inspired by the episode of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl "All Dressed Up With Somewhere To Go". The episode that killed Jessie/James shipping for me. And yet, I still like it, because it was actually pretty good, considering. Anyway, this fic deals with psychotic episodes, murder and suicide. If any of that makes ya queasy, you may want to back away now. Otherwise, have fun. Tee hee hee! And just so you know, this is pretty much an alternate way the anime could have gone, if it weren't for children and the writers actually bothered to develop Jessie and James with all the stuff that happens to them that ends up being totally ignored from episode to episode, if you follow what I'm saying. Oh well. Also, big thankee to BW0 for the title, even if it IS a bit cliché. Hee hee!

"**Shattered"  
****By Skylark Starflower  
****Started May 22, 2008  
****Finished May 29, 2008**

Everything was stained red. The grass, the nearby trees, the front of his shirt, his hands… It was splattered everywhere, and he couldn't, or perhaps wouldn't, remember how it had all gotten there.

What had he done?

Raising a trembling hand, he couldn't help staring at the smoking weapon he was holding. Where had he gotten it? Somehow he just could not recall. It frightened him, the way the gun felt so…so good in his hands… He dropped it quickly, as though it had suddenly burned him, and backed away. Could it really have been him who had done this?

Jessie stared up at him, her expression locked in disbelieving arrogance. She wasn't asking why he had killed her, he knew better than that. She wouldn't have worried about why so much as how and when he had grown enough of a backbone to be able to do such a thing in the first place. Murder was not something one would ever expect from James Morgan.

"…Jessie?"

His voice was barely audible, his throat dry. He knelt down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder as though the action might somehow bring her back. The weapon had been a smaller caliber, but the mess was still great. The fact that Jessie had been shot several times explained that. The front of her uniform was stained so dark with blood one could no longer even make out the Team Rocket logo. Her body was still warm, but cooling rapidly.

Why had he done this? The past few minutes were blank in his memory, save for the odd flash of recollection. She had said something, scathing and cruel, bringing him down, as though he had ever needed the help. It had angered him, but to have gone this far in response?

It had been a long time coming, and though James had barely realized it, something in his mind had finally snapped under the pressure. It hadn't been very long ago since the first time he had lost it. His so called friends had ruined a rare chance to do something he had actually enjoyed, in this case entering a Pokémon look-alike contest. It had been going well, too, until Jessie and Meowth had decided to rip off the prize halfway through, dragging him along with them. He really had had a chance, and though he had asserted as such to Jessie, she had ever so flippantly told him he hadn't had a snowball's chance in hell.

The next thing he could recall was coming to the realization that he had had Mime Jr. use an attack specifically targeted at Meowth and Jessie's Dustox. At the time he really had no idea what had happened, why he had done so, but after a while the memories had returned.

Now it seemed it had happened again, but this time with much more deadly consequences.

James wanted to blame her, wanted to say Jessie had pushed him to this edge only to give him that little tap to knock him over, but he couldn't. It had all been his own fault. He could have left the trio ages ago, could have put in a request for a new partner, someone who wouldn't verbally and physically abuse him every five minutes, but he hadn't. The simple, and yet still terribly complicated reason being, he was in love with Jessie.

Now she was dead. He had killed her.

He felt sick. He didn't know what to do. Stealing Pokémon was a petty crime. Even if he had been arrested for it, the sentence would have been nothing more severe than the proverbial slap on the wrist. Murder was a lot more serious.

He wasn't sure why he suddenly found himself wondering where Meowth had gone during all this, the scratch cat Pokémon curiously absent. It didn't really matter anyway. He couldn't help James with this.

He wasn't sure how long he just sat there next to Jessie's body, trying to remember what she had done that could make him lose it like this. His mind refused to work, and his eyes continued to be drawn to hers. Jessie's eyes were clouded in death, but they still seemed to be taunting him.

And he remembered.

Snatching up the gun from the ground where he had earlier dropped it, he stood and fired off another round, making the body jump.

"Evil woman!" he screamed. "All this time! ALL THIS TIME! Expendable!? I'll show you expendable!"

Jessie's plan had been dangerous, and James had been her bait. She had nearly gotten him killed. The plan had failed like all their others over the years, and when James finally got the chance to ask her what she would have done if he had been hurt, her response had been cold and haughty. If he had died, she would simply put in for a new partner, perhaps one that wasn't so pathetic and useless.

That was all he had ever been to her. A useless waste of life she could use to her own ends. He realized then that she must have known all along about his feelings towards her. She had just used them as a way to exploit him and nothing more. She had never cared about him or his feelings.

For that, for all those years she had strung him along, she deserved to die.

"Look what you've done to me! Look at what I've become! This is all your fault!" He emptied several more rounds into her corpse, making it spasm in a way not entirely unlike when the twerp's Pikachu thunder shocked them all.

Dropping the weapon once more, he sunk to his knees, his anger dissolving into crazed, hiccupping sobs. Ignoring the blood, he lowered his head until it was resting on her chest.

"Is this really what you wanted, Jessie? You must have known it was coming… you always knew everything… You've turned me into a monster… I loved you, you know that? Why did you have to be such a heartless bitch?"

He stayed as he was, head down on her bloody, bullet riddled chest, sobbing bitterly for several moments. His life had come crashing down around him in the span of a few short minutes, and he just didn't know how to pick up and continue.

The decision didn't take him long to make. There really wasn't anything left for him now. He couldn't go home, and the only person in the world he thought had cared about him never truly had. He had always been far too unbalanced to be a part of normal society, even less so now that he was also a psychotic killer.

Lifting his now blood soaked forehead from Jessie's chest, James picked up his gun one last time. Slowly, numbly, he checked the clip to find there were still three shots left to him. Two more than he needed.

Closing his eyes, he winced in revulsion as he tasted the weapon on his tongue. Blood, gunpowder and the harsh bite of metal assaulted his senses as he forced the gun barrel into his mouth. James paused for only a moment, hiccupping out one last broken, frightened sob around the weapon, before pulling the trigger.

X X X

Meowth had wandered further than he had originally intended, searching for food for himself and his teammates. He had gotten rather good at foraging, considering how he, Jessie and James rarely had the money to afford even food. If only they weren't so dreadfully bad at stealing Pokémon, they wouldn't be constantly starving.

With a sigh, the little Pokémon picked the berries from the scraggly bush he had found. It wasn't much, but at least it was something. Combined with the few other things he had already found, the three could survive for at least one more day.

Meowth's ears perked and his fur went on end as a gunshot echoed through the forest. A flock of starlies took to the air, disturbed by the sudden, unfamiliar sound.

"What was dat?" Meowth couldn't help asking aloud. Another shot cracked the stillness, and yet another, one after the other until he lost count. Dropping the food he was carrying, he turned and began to run back to camp, a feeling of dread washing over him. He didn't know where the shots were coming from, but they sounded far too close to home for his comfort.

He was still too far away when the next volley of weapon fire resounded through the woods. He was scared of what he might find. Who was doing the shooting, and who or what was being shot? He hoped Jessie and James were okay and could hold on until he could get there to help, if needed.

The little scratch cat was huffing and puffing by the time he reached the outskirts of the camp, but he knew he had no time to rest. There hadn't been any sound now for several moments, and that was rarely a good thing in situations like this.

He approached cautiously, not sure what he would find, almost afraid to look. As it was, he never really had the time to register what he was seeing before everything changed.

"Jessie? James? What happened? Are you guys okay?"

It was the last thing Meowth would ever say. There was a sharp crack, and something warm and sticky suddenly splashed across the Pokémon's face. Horrified, he raised a paw and wiped at the mess. It came back coated with blood, and bits of other things he didn't want to even try to identify.

Though his mind screamed at him to just run and not to look, Meowth couldn't help turning his eyes in the direction the blood had come from. He didn't know how to react to what he found.

Jessie lay on the ground, dead eyes staring at nothing, in a pool of her own blood. James lay at a right angle to her, the back of his head now nothing more than a soupy red paste. The weapon he had used had fallen to the ground nearby, and sat there, looking innocent.

The shock of the scene was more than Meowth could handle. The little cat pokémon curled up into a trembling ball, trying to erase what he had seen from his brain, wishing it had never happened. He welcomed the darkness as his mind simply shut down, unable to deal with the situation.

X X X

"Pi pika!"

Ash couldn't help laughing as he watched his best friend dart through the bushes. He, Dawn and Brock were on their way to Eterna City so Ash could challenge his next Sinnoh League Gym. The day was bright and sunny, and spirits were running high.

The trail through the forest was little used and overgrown, but Brock assured everyone it would get them to where they were going. In one hand, the breeder carried a map, and in the other, the pokémon egg he had won in the same contest Team Rocket had tried to rob.

"Pikachu looks like it's having fun," smiled Dawn. "Maybe it would like some company." The blue haired girl drew four pokéballs and tossed them into the air. "Come on out, everyone!"

The balls popped open, but only three of the pokémon ran to play with Pikachu. "Bui…" snorted Buizel, as though taking time to play was a waste that could be better spent training. Piplup, Buneary and Pachirisu all immediately joined Pikachu in romping through the bushes.

Ash laughed again. "I'm glad that everyone's in a good mood. I can't wait to get to Eterna City now! I'm so gonna win my next badge!"

"Well, we have to get there first, so come on guys," called Brock. The older member of the group was already far ahead, waiting for his friends to catch up. Ash and Dawn ran to catch up, their pokémon following close behind.

Though the three didn't know it yet, they were far off the path Brock thought they were on. As they traveled further into the woods, the trail became ever more overgrown.

"Are you sure this is the right way, Brock?" asked Ash, as the older man stared in frustration at the map. As the three tried to figure out just where they were, the pokémon continued to run and play among the trees, unflustered by being lost.

A sudden terrified, "Piiikaaaaa!" rent the air, and Ash jumped.

"Pikachu! Where are you, what's wrong?"

Pikachu came running to its trainer, followed by Dawn's pokémon and all four of them started talking at once, each and every one of them terrified by what they had found.

"Calm down, guys. One at a time, or else I can't understand you," said Ash. "What's the matter?"

"Pika pi pi pikachu pi! Pi pikachu!" squeaked the electric rodent. Though Ash could generally tell what Pikachu told him, this time he was baffled.

"I don't understand. What did you find?"

Instead of trying to explain again, Pikachu motioned for Ash and the others to follow before darting back into the forest. It didn't take long after that for the three to find what their pokémon had already discovered.

Brock was in the middle, behind Ash but in front of Dawn, and when he saw what was up ahead, he quickly turned to block the young girl's line of sight. The pokémon breeder had gone pale, and looked as though he would be sick.

"Don't look, Dawn," he said. "Trust me, you don't want to see."

Normally, Dawn would have argued and demanded to know what was up ahead, but seeing the way Brock had reacted, she figured it would be best to listen this once. She still wanted to know what was going on, however.

"Fine, I won't look, but what is it?" she asked.

"It's…it's Team Rocket…" Brock trailed off, but his silence was quickly filled with the sound of Ash retching in the bushes.

Dawn couldn't help it. She knew it was a bad idea, but she had to know what the boys had seen to make them react as they had. Brock tried to stop her, but she pushed past him anyway. She was not prepared for what she found.

It was a scene out of a nightmare. The grass was watered with blood, the two corpses still laying as they had fallen earlier, untouched by scavengers. The one remaining survivor of the Team Rocket trio had seen to that, though now he was settled between his two dead friends, his eyes haunted and sad.

He looked up, his face still splashed with blood, and stared at the intruding trio. There was no flash of recognition in his eyes, nor even a hint of the intelligence that had once been there.

No one moved or said anything for several moments. No one had any idea what to do. Jessie, James and Meowth had never been their friends, but none of them had wished anything like this upon them.

"Wh…what should we do, guys?" Dawn's voice trembled as she spoke.

"I guess…we should … I don't know…" replied Brock.

Ash was the first to find the courage to approach the bodies. He didn't know what had happened, and unless he could get Meowth to talk about it, he probably never would. Kneeling carefully, trying to avoid the blood, he reached out his hands to the scratch cat. The pokémon bristled, obviously scared.

"It's okay, Meowth," Ash spoke gently, trying to calm the clearly traumatized animal. "I won't hurt you, I just want to know what happened here."

Though Meowth was scared and upset, Ash's outstretched arms looked comforting and warm. He stood clumsily, trying to stand on his hind legs, though unable to remember why he once had. Dropping instead to all fours when that failed, he gave a little leap and was gently caught up by Ash.

The young trainer stood, a trembling Meowth safely enveloped in his arms, and turned to the others. "Does anyone have something I can use to wash his face?"

Dawn found a cloth in her bag, and wet it with some water before handing it to Ash. He took it in turn and gently began to scrub the blood from the pokémon's face, questioning him as he did so.

"What happened to Jessie and James, Meowth?"

He got no reply.

"Why don't you talk to us?"

Meowth just continued to stare up at Ash. It didn't take the boy long to realize what was wrong. The shock of what had happened had been too much for the little pokémon to deal with, and so he simply hadn't. He wouldn't be able to tell anyone about what had happened, since he could no longer recall it himself.

It wasn't just the memories of what happened that were gone, either. Meowth had essentially lost himself. What had made him special, separated him from other Meowths, was now gone, possibly forever.

"You can't talk anymore, can you?"

The only reply Ash got was Meowth burying his head into the young trainer's stomach and continuing to tremble. Though he no longer remembered what had happened, the incident had left a permanent scar in his mind. He would never be the same.

Ash stroked the cat's head as he tossed a pokéball. It snapped open, releasing Staravia. "Find an Officer Jenny and bring her here, okay?"

"Staravia!" The big bird pokémon spread its wings and took to the air, speeding towards the closest town to bring the requested help.

Ash, Dawn and Brock sat in silence, waiting for Staravia to return. It was all they could do, and none of them knew what to say. They would never learn what had really happened.

**The End**


End file.
